[Tachikoma]

A thread for extremely short, to the point reviews of games you have played.
[All are personal opinions so if you disagree, post your own review]

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Vikings: Battle for Asgard
Sound: 6/10 - Nothing special.
Graphics: 6.5/10 - Nice but not ground breaking.
Gameplay: 8/10 - Good fun if you enjoy hack and slash games
Longevity: 4/10 - 20 hours, no DLC planned, no MP.
Overall: 7.5/10 - A good solid slasher game but maybe a rental for the casual player

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Dark Sector
Sound: 7/10 - Nice voice acting and gun sounds.
Graphics: 8/10 - Very nice reflections on metal and general modelling.
Gameplay: 7/10 - Gets a bit repetitive occasionally but when it's good, it's really good.
Longevity: 8/10 - Some good MP modes and 25 hour campaign.
Overall: 8/10 - Enjoyed it and well worth a purchase.

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Condemned 2: Bloodshot
Sound: 9/10 - Excellent voice acting, music and sfx.
Graphics: 9/10 - Excellent models and imagery, some lovely 'graphically effects'.
Gameplay: 8.5/10 - Very hard at times but the combat system has been greatly overhauled as has general game mechanic.
Longevity: 8/10: Some great MP modes, FPS mode with unlimited ammo and a 25+ hour campaign (on easy).
Overall: 9/10 - A damned fine return to the world of Condemned with a whole new feel and a fantastic continuation of the story

[Imshall]

Excellent idea Ryan! Hope this thread keeps up!!

[Holy_Donut]

The Orange Box

Graphics: 9/10. While HL2's are a little dated, TF2, and Episode 2 look very nice.
Sound: 8/10 It's very loud, loses marks for not being able to hear some NPC's remarks over gunfire, but the TF2 taunts are generally brilliant.
Gameplay: 10/10 Portal is fresh and brain-taxing, HL2 is old-school shooting fun and Team Fortress 2 is ridiculously balanced and enjoyable.
Longevity: 8/10 While Half-Life does get repetitive, the wankingly hard Portal challenges and extremely enjoyable Team Fortress keeps you going back.
Overall: 9/10 Why am I the only one with this?

[Tachikoma]

Rainbow Six Vegas 2
Graphics: 8.5/10 - Nice, very nice, but not the best ever by any means.
Sound: 8.5/10 - Does what you'd expect with nice gun sounds, explosions and voice acting. Music also very nice and atmospheric.
Gameplay: 10/10 - The best got better, unparralled gameplay both SP and the fantastic MP modes.
Longevity: 10/10 - With so much to choose from MP wise and the long SP campaign this game will outlive CoD4 easily.
Overall: 10/10 - Simply a perfect thinking mans fps with so much more to offer than it's competitors that it is a real shame more have not yet tried it!

[Tachikoma]

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Battlestations: Midway
Sound: 6/10 - What you'd expect but nothing amazing really. Awful music!.
Graphics: 6.5/10 - Pretty but again nothing amazing. Would like to have seen sailors milling around on desk!
Gameplay: 6/10 - Fun for a few missions but then gets repetetive. Not all vehicles are fun to use! MP also a 6/10 as  some ships are overpowered.
Longevity: 7/10 - A good number of missions with some extras unlocked afterwards. Really needed a random geenrator of Mission maker though
A Overall: 7/10 - The only game of this type currently available on 360 but with the sequal coming I'd wait for that.

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[Tachikoma]

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Assassin's Creed
Sound: 7/10 - Good sounds all in all apart from the voice acting of the main character which is pretty awful.
Graphics: 9.5/10 - Graphically the game is amazing. Few games have matched the imagery and the movement of the characters, both alive and scenic.
Gameplay: 3/10 -this is where it fails. After 2 missions the game becomes extremely tedious and frankly unplayable. Also has the stupidest final boss fight ever!!
Longevity: 5.5/10 - A sizeable campaign that will take you 20 hours, if you can be bothered to sit through it all. No MP or replay at all.
Overall: 5/10 - A game that is just like a supermodel. Very pretty, but as shallow as a paddling pool. Avoid.

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[Holy_Donut]

TWO WORLDS

Graphics: 5/10. Not great. But the vistas are pretty. All women strangely ample-chested.
Sound: 10/10. The funniest unintenionally bad voice acting ever. Hitting a rabbit with a club, while a deep american voice roars 'Say hello to death!' cannot be beaten.
Gameplay: 7/10 Pretty basic hack 'n slash, but the magic system is pretty cool. Nice quest  variation.
Longevity: 7/10 Lots of quests and a big map, but the main story is a pushover
Replay: 2/10 After finishing the main quest, I felt no desire to play the storyline again, just bum around in the woods stabbing peasants. The most retarded endings ever. GOOD; Ride off into the sunset with your scantily clad sister (incest overtones). BAD; Stand in a line with your sister and the bad guy. That's it.
Multiplayer: 8/10 Surpisingly good. A bit repetitive but what isn't? Odd need to take the disc out occasionally and cool it down by waving it about, otherwise the host sees all the characters as 2foot high boxes.  
Overall: I have no idea.

[Tachikoma]

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Call of Duty 4
Sound: 9/10 - Great gun sounds and voice acting.
Graphics: 8.5/10 - Does the job but nothing ground breaking.
Gameplay: 9/10 - Near to perfect but the MP does get repetitive after a few weeks.
Longevity: 8.5/10 - The story mode is a tad short but there are  few good MP modes which could last a long time so long as boredom doesn't set in. No coop at all which is inexcusable.
Overall: 8.5/10 - A very very good MP game, with an average SP and no coop but could last someone a long long time.

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Halo 3
Sound: 9.5/10 - Excellent music and fantastic voice acting. Sfx also excellent.
Graphics: 9/10 - Graphically exquisite in places but equally some parts look too much like Halo 2.
Gameplay: 9/10 - SP is a tad short but great fun on coop. Very good MP modes marred by awful matchmaking system but Forge is amazing!!
Longevity: 9/10 - SP, although short, I can not get tired of. MP and forge will keep you coming back forever and loads of DL content planned.
Overall: 9.5/10 - Many may say it is Halo 2.5 bt I personally find it to be a endlessly re playable game with a gret future.

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[Tachikoma]

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Grand Theft Auto IV
Sound: 8.5/10 - Good voice acting as always but why such damned awful music??
Graphics: 7/10 - Vehicles look nice but backgrounds are a tad drab and character models look pretty awful...
Gameplay: 8/10 - Again the same as all other GTA's with nothing new at all. Also it feels like there is a serious lack of direction in the story.
Longevity: 9/10 - I am only 10 hours in but it feels like I have just started. Have yet to try MP modes.
Overall: 8/10 - Game of the year, nope. But a good game but I do feel many will be disappointed if they believed the hype.

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[Tachikoma]

Fable 2 Mini Review

It's been a while since we did one of these so what better way to return to it than with one of the most highly anticipated games of 2008?
For starters, let's look at what PM promised us:
1) Dog. We will have a travelling companion who will seek out treasure and assist in combat.
2) One button combat: This will innovate gameplay and make it accessible to all.
3) A fully dynamic, interactive and free roaming with no set quest path to take and includes all 4 seasons (spring, summer, autumn, and winter). The world of Albion is fully accessible - in the original Fable you were restricted by fences, this restriction has now been removed. Peter Molyneux has stated that "if it looks like you can go there, you can go there."
4) A story so deep and engaging you will telly our children about it in years to come.


Now let's look at what we have:
1) Dog: Yep he's there and my god is he adorable! He hops around barking, lays down to have his tummy tickled and plays ball with you. He also alerts you to treasure and enemies but while he is level 2 out of 5 for combat he has yet to attack anything!! I love my little doggie though

2) Yup there is one button combat but sadly it is so dumbed down as to be boring as hell! I have found myself hammering X while watching tv only to look up and see I have killed everything already

3) A free roaming world, go anywhere and seasons change? My ass!
Paths work the same as Fable 1, you can follow the path and usually cannot leave them due to impenetrable bushes. Or you can but go no further than 10- foot away! It is extremely restricted and although you can backtrack or go to regions outside of missions there is little else to do besides kill random beasties that only appear in the same pre-ordained locations!
There is also a very defined path, you have to do the missions in a set way to progress the story and once you start one you can no longer rest at an inn as you are classed as 'on a mission'!!
Oh and seasons? There are none.

4) I am only a little way in but I have a good grasp of the story and frankly it is less impressive than a sci-fi channel horror flick. Very generic rpg stuff that I will tell my kids about but only as a "This is how crap games were when I was a kid".

Now that is cleared up lets look at the game in stages:

Graphics
In general it is all very pleasant, backgrounds are lush and light is handled wonderfully. Then you see the characters and in game visuals and it all looks a little last gen.
Lip-synch is non-existent, animation is ho-hum and the only thing of note is the backgrounds really!
All in all it feels very rushed!

Sound
Well we have the usual Rpg style music that again is very ho-hum and the voice acting varies from excellent to hammily-awful. Weapon clashes sound just…weird!
Frankly it again sounds a little yester-year.

Gameplay
Again I am extremely disappointed here.
Combat is dull and boring as stated above and even the guns/magic does little to excite.
The quests tend to vary vastly which is a good thing but there seems to be a great reduction in the sheer amount on hand compared to the original game!
The biggest issue for me is the lack of a map and the simple fact of it being so hard to find your way around from one mission to the next.
Each region has it’s own map and that map in itself is extremely limited and with the inability to add waypoints, interact with it or even zoom/rotate the map you are reduced to basically running round for ages trying to find what you seek manually.
This coupled with the fact you have to run for hours to reach your next mission as it is impossible to fast travel to a location until it is visited atleast once (fair enough I'd say) but due to the lack of a full map you cannot even fast travel t a neighbouring region to shorten the trip is unforgiveable.
Coop on one local machine is reduced to one player doing the game and the other tagging along and not being able to interact with even a barrel, only combat!!!
And in online coop the Joiner has to stay within 1 screen proximity of the host as if they shared one screen….you cannot move very far away at all!
Then you have the simple fact that the menu system for handling items/qusts is the same as in Fable 1 and therefore slow, clunky and not exactly user friendly means the sum up of the gameplay is that it is more of a chore than an enjoyment to play.

Overall
So all in all I would have to say it is much like the original game. It promised louds and failed to deliver on the majority of it.
That coupled with the failure of a coop game, failure of the games content and the absolute failure of the Limited Collectors Edition gumph leaves me wishing I had rented rather than bought this game!
5/10

[haeZen]

Hmm, is it confirmed that co-op is not included or do you just mean that your annoyed how it's not included from the off? Im not poking you in the back or anything it's understandable.

Are you sure your not being a little overly criticle of the free roam, course it won't hbe like say Crackdown, GTA, or SR but it can't be as linear as the original surely? I see the return of the impenatrable bushes is back, to be fair they have all these castle's just create them outta these bushes. Make's sense.

Level 2 combat Dog and he's not attacked yet. Lol nice!

haeZen,

[Tachikoma]

Coop is included but as Immy with testify to, it is crap.
As for the free roam....imagine a path with a hedge on either side which cannot be passed, that is 80% of the map.
the rest you can jump over the hedge and then have about 5 foot of grass either side to walk on.
All in all it sucks.
We did a few hours coop last night and realised how often the same maps are revisited to save offering anything new or even take you from a-b-c then require you to go back to b-a and then back again just to make it seem longer than it actually is!
Damned damned lazy and poo.

[Tachikoma]

Fallout 3
Sound: 8/10: The voice acting, from Liam Neeson as 'Dad' to Ron Perlman as the Narrator are all excellent.
Graphics: 9/10: Graphically the game excels wonderfully. There are a few shortcuts taken graphically to optimise framerate and draw distance but unless you go looking for it you'll be none the wiser. Enemies and the like are drawn and animated beautifully as the environmental effects
Gameplay: 10/10: Everything about the gameplay is good. The exploration is fun and exciting, the combat perfect well executed and just a pleasure to play
Longevity: 10/10:I can see this game lasting a long long time as I have done about 30 hours now and there is loads to do yet!
Overall: 9.9/10: Quite simply a fantastic game that offers everything I had hoped and more.
A little bit more comedy wouldn't have gone amiss in keeping with Fallout 1/2 but it is a bloody brilliant game
Much love.

[Holy_Donut]

I played Fallout at a mate's yesterday. I wouldn't call the combat 'exciting'. After you run out of Action Points it turns into a gentleman's duel, as there is little to no point strafing.

[Tachikoma]

Is there any reason why you can't use cover?
Or plant a mine and run back?
Or take out the enemies eyes/antenna and reduce it to a frenzied ally killer?
There are loads of options in combat, I love it

[Holy_Donut]

Something just felt a little off.

[haeZen]

Yeah, I have to agree. My friends bums this game like crazy but after about 20 minutes the novelty factor of VAT's shooting people's head off just wore thin.

Maybe it was because I wasn't playing it personally for long but I actually got bored, which was wierd after spending so much time in Oblivion, this didn't really grasp me enough.

haeZen,

[Holy_Donut]

To be honest, I am enjoying having a good old nosy around various radioactive ruins than melting a evil doer's face off.

Which is odd for me.

[Tachikoma]

Little Big planet

Graphics: 9/10. Can a game look any prettier than this?? And the physics...jeeesus it all works so well!!
Sound: 9/10 Some of the greatest tunes to arise since Patapon and Loco Roco.
Gameplay: 10/10 I haven't been a platform fan since the 80's but this has reignited it for me. Best platformer of all time with 1-4 player online and local, level creator, costumes, a pod to design and personalise...this has everything!
Longevity: 10/10 So long as people have an imagination to make maps it will never run out!
Overall: 9.5/10 Quite simply breathtaking.

[Tachikoma]

Gears of War 2

Graphics: 9/10. Graphically this game is incredible. Everything about it is great but there are some truly dreadful clipping issues! Also a shame 90% of the enemies look the same!
Sound: 8/10 Ok music but some of the guns now sound a lot meatier which is nice. Voice acting pretty good also!
Gameplay:  7/10 Exactly the same as part 1. Run down a redefined route, stop, kill enemies before it allows you to continue. All a tad dull but it is a good fun shooter none-the-less.
Longevity: 5/10 Campaign is pathetically short. As for MP I tried a few but I still dislike the close quaters, although they have widened it a tiny bit more than part 1.
Overall: 7.5/10
A good game for a rental but not enought to play more than once for me.

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Legendary

Graphics: 8/10. Some of the large vistas are amazing, the golem is excellent as is the kraken. Character models are a bit dull.
Sound: 9/10 Excellent Guitar music and ok voice acting. Guns sound meaty and nice too!
Gameplay: 8/10 There are some bits in this game that I love such as the Kraken fight or running round the feet of a 200' tall golum but others are just generic respawning enemies to increase gameplay time. A mixed bag but still good fun. Biggest flaw: only 7 guns!
Longevity: 6/10 20 hour campaign but multiplayer is a big generic....deathmatch fare. No replay value.
Overall: 7/10 A good fun distraction, not worthy of a major slagging it has had but a viable rental.

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Call of Duty 5: World at War

Graphics: 7.5/10: Nothing amazing but pretty enough. Level 1 is the best with the flares etc. Downhill from there sadly.
Sound: 6.5/10 Average voice acting and standard sound effects. Music a rehash of CoD3 also.
Gameplay: 8/10 Gameplay is good, the game is fun and the combat flows along at a reasonable pace. Sadly it has all been seen before and offers nothing new what so ever beyond the last WWII simulations.
Longevity: 8/10 Finished the main campaign in 8 hours and then unlocked the Zombie mode which frankly is poo.
The famed MP of CoD4 is still there which works as well as usual but again, same old same old.
Overall: 7.5/10 Overall it is what you would expect from a CoD game, it is basically CoD3 with a new setting but doing exactly the same as every other war based game out there.
Too short, too samey and with CoD4 now cheap you might as well just buy that as you'd get exactly the same from it!

[Holy_Donut]

Ryan, your logic continues to give me a migraine.

[Tachikoma]

[Gorfinkle]

[haeZen]

Opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one and they all stink.

haeZen,

[Holy_Donut]

Not even getting into this freedom of speech thing.

It's more that Legendary is.... Well it's widely achknowledged to be a bit shit

[Tachikoma]

And GoW2 is widely acknowledged to be the best thing since midget sex but I thought it was all graphics and no gameplay.
Legendary is not great by any means but it is fun, less linear than many other games of late and has a sense of a grand scale, unlike the aforementioned game.
If his all tells us one thing Donny it is this, you and I have wiiiildly different views of games but let's not pick at each others opinions I am sure we are both far to grown up to sink to such childish retorts.
We shall hence forth have to simply agree to disagree on games and leave it as that eh?  

[Holy_Donut]

But the rest of your reviews did make sense in a kind of picky way, but the Legendary thing hit me like a stealth bomber at night while I was sleeping in a soundproofed room with no windows and I'd been drugged with Rohypnol.

In other words, didn't see it coming

[Tachikoma]

[Holy_Donut]

Aww, your mention of retro made me remember Serious Sam.

Damn, I miss that game.

[Tachikoma]

[Holy_Donut]